The Frog Prince Retold
by 13-Red-Cards
Summary: We have all heard of the princess who befriended a lowly, talking frog. But who can resist hearing it again?
1. Chapter 1

**So I recently translated this fairy tale from German to English, and it struck me as rather touching. Therefore, I decided to elaborate on it. Here's the result. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

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**Chapter 1: **

Once upon a time, in a land full of magic, enchanters, kingdoms, princes and princesses, there was a king with seven daughters. All seven were quite lovely, but it was generally agreed that Gretchen, the youngest, was the most beautiful. This is how it always happens, of course. The oldest are always much less attractive than their younger siblings.

When Gretchen had almost grown up, and her six older sisters had all married and left the castle, something most unfortunate occurred. The queen, Gretchen's mother, fell ill and died.

Naturally, the entire kingdom was heartbroken, for the queen had been very good and generous. The king was devastated; the queen had been his wife for many decades. Gretchen was completely crushed. She had loved her mother fiercely, and now felt very alone in the world. The castle was too large and empty without the queen. So, to escape the horrible emptiness, Gretchen often fled into the woods on the castle grounds. Always she fled to the same little well, and always she brought a little golden ball with her. The ball had belonged to her mother, so it was her most treasured possession.

Gretchen never knew what exactly to do with the ball, but she always carried it on her person. As she sat by the well, she would toss the ball high into the air, then catch it again. Toss it, and catch it, all the while remembering her departed mother and fighting the tears that threatened to spill out of her eyes.

A frog lived in the well. He often would poke his head out of the water and watch the princess. He never bothered Gretchen, and Gretchen never noticed him.

One day in late spring, several months after the death of the queen, Gretchen was again sitting by the well, tossing the golden ball into the air and letting it fall back down. She was not crying this time, but her face was glum. She moved to toss the ball upwards once again, but she threw it much too forcefully. It flew through the air, she missed it as it came back down, and it landed right in the well, quickly sinking to the very bottom.

"Oh, no," Gretchen breathed. Then tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She stared blankly into the well, crying silently, wishing that the golden ball would float back to the surface.

The golden ball did not appear. Instead, a large, green, and quite ugly frog head emerged from the dark water.

"Crying again?" the frog asked in a gentle but croaking voice.

"Please go away," Gretchen sniffled, pulling away from the well.

"Don't be like that," the frog objected. "Tell me why you are crying."

"My mother the queen is dead," Gretchen replied in a choked voice, "and I have just lost a precious memento of her."

"Is it a little golden ball?" asked the frog. "I saw one sinking."

"Yes."

"I will go fetch it for you," the frog declared. "However, I'd like you to give me something in return."

Gretchen was now staring eagerly into the well with a hopeful expression. "Truly?" she asked.

"If you give me something in return," replied the frog.

It did not occur to the young princess that a frog could have anything unreasonable to request, so she agreed. "I'll give you anything you want," she promised. "Would you like gold? Jewels? My crown? Or maybe just a bigger well. I don't know. What would you like?"

"None of those things," the frog said firmly. "Shall I tell you what I want?"

"Yes, do," said Gretchen, a little impatiently.

"I want to be accepted at your table," said the frog. "I want to eat from your golden plate, and live in your palace, and share your luxurious chambers."

"Of course," Gretchen absentmindedly replied, for she was not really listening. She was too eager to regain her mother's golden ball.

"In that case, wait just a moment," the frog croaked before diving down into the well.

Gretchen peered anxiously at the dark waters of the well, wondering if the frog would really retrieve the ball. But she need not have feared. Soon the frog reappeared, hefting the little golden sphere with his strong limbs. He looked exhausted.

"Thank you, thank you!" Gretchen exclaimed, seizing her treasured memento and standing to leave.

"Wait!" the frog desperately called out. "You promised to accept me into your palace!"

Yet again, Gretchen was not listening. You see, she was not really in the habit of listening. So, with her precious golden ball in her hand, her tears drying rapidly, she skipped back to the castle, leaving the ugly frog to croak helplessly after her.

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**So that's Chapter 1! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

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**Chapter 2: **

That evening, Gretchen sat down with her father the king and all his courtiers to a great banquet. There was enough food to feed an entire village, and they all began to eat with great enthusiasm. Gretchen's earlier trauma had been forgotten. She was now quite content. Grief, you know, does not usually linger for longer than it ought to.

However, halfway through the feast, a messenger scurried into the hall and whispered something into the king's ear. The king frowned, puzzled, then called Gretchen to him.

"What is it, Father?" she asked quietly.

"Apparently," the king slowly replied, "there is a frog awaiting entrance at the gate. It wants to speak with you."

At this, Gretchen turned very pale. All those things that she had not listened to earlier that day were flooding into her mind in a most unpleasant manner.

"Why does this frog want to speak with you?" the king asked in a long-suffering voice. Gretchen was sometimes a very troublesome daughter.

"The frog returned Mother's golden ball to me when I dropped it into a well," Gretchen meekly replied. "I believe I told it that it could come live with me if it did this."

"But you did not fulfill your promise?"

"No," the princess admitted in a very small voice.

"Then you must do so now," the king decided. "Go admit the frog and let him dine with you."

"But, Father," Gretchen objected, "it is a _frog._"

"As a promise is a promise," the king replied. "Admit the frog."

So the frog was admitted and placed by the side of Gretchen's plate. Gretchen herself was burning with embarrassment, for many of the courtiers were pointing and snickering. She glared down at the frog with blatant disdain.

"I should think you'd be a little more gracious," the frog quietly said. "After all, you did promise."

"Shut up," Gretchen hissed at him.

The frog and the princess were now eyeing each other with mutual disgust. However, the frog's eyes soon softened. "Your grief has made you discourteous," he said.

"No, it is your presence that is doing the job," Gretchen stiffly replied.

The rest of the meal was extremely unpleasant, with very few more words exchanged between Gretchen and the frog. Gretchen glared, and the frog ate with infuriating complacency. At the end of the meal, Gretchen rose to depart for her bedroom, hoping to leave the frog behind, but his croaking voice objected, "Didn't you promise to let me share your bedroom, as well?"

"Did you promise, Gretchen?" the king asked.

"Yes," Gretchen muttered as she roughly grabbed the frog and carried him up two flights of marble stairs to her room.

"You're being unkind," the frog admonished her as she dropped him on the windowsill.

"You're being unreasonable," Gretchen retorted.

Ignoring this reply, the frog asked, "Where am I to sleep?"

"Can't you just go back to the well?"

"No," the frog calmly replied. "I'm going to sleep here. I would like a soft cushion on this windowsill, with a shallow pan of water nearby."

Sighing, Gretchen called for her maid and told her to fetch a cushion and a pan of water.

"I would prefer a cushion with gold embroidery," the frog croaked loudly as the maid left.

"Just be satisfied with what you are given," Gretchen snapped.

"I'm not one to be satisfied with the lot of a frog."

"Clearly."

"You are perhaps the most selfish, stingiest princess I have ever met," the frog croaked at her. "And I have met several."

"How long do frogs live?" Gretchen asked sharply, completely ignoring the frog's previous comment.

"I should be on this earth for many more years," the frog replied stiffly.

"Alas," Gretchen sighed.

Presently, the maid returned with a gold-embroidered cushion and a shallow pan of water and set them both on the windowsill next to the frog.

"Many thanks," said the frog.

"Please, just lie down on your embroidered cushion and go to sleep," said Gretchen in a tired voice. "I don't want to hear your voice anymore."

"Someday you'll enjoy my company," the frog told her. "Wait and see."

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**Reviews are appreciated! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

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**Chapter 3: **

"A princess should behave better than this," the frog said in a voice of disgust.

It was the morning after the frog had come to the castle, and Gretchen had woken up angry because her hair was a mess. The frog had remarked on it, and that had not helped.

"What exciting hair you have," he had said. That had thrown Gretchen into a near-tantrum.

Now, the frog was admonishing her sharply, "Stop it now, you silly girl. Is hair really something to be upset about? I must ask, were you really crying over your mother all those times when you sat by the well?"

"Of course I was!" Gretchen snapped.

"Would your mother be pleased with this behavior?" the frog asked. "Control yourself. Your behavior is revolting."

"You have no right to correct me," Gretchen said haughtily.

"You have no right to be so horrid," the frog retorted.

Sitting down on her bed, Gretchen glared at the disagreeable amphibian soaking in his pan of water and found herself wishing that all sorts of unpleasant things would happen to him. After a while, she began to repent of her behavior. "Please forgive me," she said. Her tone was grumpy, but the intention was one of reconciliation.

"You are forgiven," said the frog.

"Are you regretting coming here?" Gretchen asked, now more gently.

"No, not yet," the frog replied in his usual, croaking voice.

"Well, I suppose that is good for you," said Gretchen. She rose from the bed. "Now, Frog, I'm going to dress, so please turn around and bury your face in the cushion."

"I will do so immediately," said the frog, "if you call me by my real name."

"What is your real name?"

"Franz."

"In truth?"

"In truth."

"Very well. Franz, please bury your face in the cushion."

"Of course."

After Gretchen had dressed, she picked up the frog, Franz, and carried him down the two flights of marble stairs to breakfast, where her father and several important guests were preparing to eat.

"Good morning, Gretchen," said the king. "Good morning, Sir Frog."

"I'm told his real name is Franz," said Gretchen, her face turning red as several of the guests snickered into their goblets.

"Indeed it is," Franz agreed.

"Very well, Sir Franz," said the king with the utmost solemnity. "I trust you had a pleasant sleep?"

"Most pleasant," croaked the frog, giving Gretchen a sly look. "Not the slightest discomfort. The princess is most hospitable."

"A remarkably eloquent frog, I must say," remarked one of the guests.

Franz merely nodded graciously at the man.

"You took their mockery very well," Gretchen later said as she carried the frog through the castle, showing him the layout of the place.

"There's no sense in getting upset over such a thing," Franz replied.

"I might have, were I in your place," Gretchen confessed.

"That is because you are still a silly girl," said the frog. "Soon, I think, you will become a wise lady, and then you won't be nearly so sensitive."

Suddenly, Franz grew silent, for they had just entered the library. It was an immense room, with many, many rows of bookshelves, all packed with literature, so high that Gretchen would have to climb to the very top of a ladder to reach the books at the top. Gretchen carried Franz between two of the shelves, walking very slowly so that he could see all the books.

"Have you ever seen a book before?" she asked.

"Yes," the frog replied. "I am very fond of books."

"You must have had a very exciting life before you went into that well," Gretchen remarked.

"It was exciting," he agreed.

They fell into a reverential silence as Gretchen continued to carry the ugly frog through the library, stopping only occasionally to peer at a certain book that caught his or her attention. When they had left the room, Gretchen declared, "I think I will try to like you, Franz."

"I would appreciate it, seeing as I'm putting forth a tremendous effort to like _you_," he bluntly replied.

So they had reached an accord.

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**Yet another chapter, finished! =) **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

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**Chapter 4: **

"Is that not a fine specimen of a man?" Gretchen sighed, gazing out her window into the courtyard.

"I beg your pardon?" croaked Franz from his pan of water.

"Come and see," said Gretchen, beckoning for the frog to hop closer.

"What do you want me to see?" he asked as he scooted across the windowsill to stand at the princess's elbow.

"Sir Heinrich," she replied. "Look, there he is, watering his horse."

"Hardly a difficult task for you humans," Franz skeptically replied.

"Don't be that way," Gretchen admonished him. "I suppose, being a male _and_ a frog, you couldn't possibly understand what I am trying to explain to you."

"I don't see that much explaining has been happening," said Franz. "But I'll try to grasp your meaning."

As you can see, Franz and Gretchen had become friends. Over a month had passed since that fateful day by the well, so their original squabbles had been forgotten. Gretchen enjoyed having a constant companion and confidante. It lessened the pain of losing her mother. She could not always tell whether or not Franz liked her, but since he had not yet asked to be returned to his lonely well, she could only assume that he was content.

Sometimes Gretchen and Franz walked down to the well and sat there in deep conversation, remembering the past. These were pleasant times. Franz seemed to be a very wise frog, and Gretchen could feel herself growing wiser. She hoped soon to be less of a "silly girl" and more of a "wise lady."

Franz often laughed at her. Gretchen didn't like it, but it had to be endured. She tried to laugh back at him, but somehow it never irritated him. This was her goal: to irritate the frog. But he seemed practically imperturbable.

Now, he was simply puzzled.

"What is so remarkable about this man?" he asked, peering curiously through the glass window at the tall, manly knight who was still watering his horses.

"He is handsome," Gretchen declared.

"Lord, help us," Franz croaked.

"And he is kind, and dashing, and romantic," Gretchen continued, fiercely defending the one she admired.

"Is he wise and honorable?" Franz asked.

"Well, I believe so," the princess replied, but she sounded uncertain. The frog noticed.

"A man is not admirable if he is neither wise nor honorable," he said seriously.

"I am certain that Sir Heinrich is an honorable man," Gretchen declared. "Whenever we speak, he seems very good."

"And wise?"

"And wise."

"Are you sure?"

"I am very sure."

There was a pause as both princess and frog continued to watch the knight. Then Franz suddenly asked, "When did you speak with him?"

Gretchen blushed, and the ugly frog's bulging eyes seemed to narrow. "We have spoken on many occasions."

"But when?"

"Often at sundown," Gretchen confessed.

"After I have gone to sleep?"

"Yes."

"So you sneak outside to speak with this honorable knight," Franz summarized. His fat, green face scrunched up into a frown. "I do not approve."

"Of course you don't," Gretchen said flatly. "You do not approve of anything I say or do."

"That is completely false," the frog said in blunt contradiction. "I simply do not approve of the silly, girlish things that you say and do."

"But you disapprove of my meetings with Heinrich."

"Because they are silly and girlish. And imprudent, I might add."

"What do you know of this?" Gretchen hissed. "You are a frog."

At last, she seemed to have affected him. Franz looked absolutely livid. You may wonder how a frog can look angry, and perhaps we readers could not tell, but after one has spent over a month in the company of a frog I expect one learns his expressions.

Glaring at the princess, the frog let out one enormous croak before hopping off the windowsill onto the hard, stone floor. He hit the floor with a loud smack that frightened Gretchen horribly.

"Are you all right?" she gasped, leaving the window to crouch down on the floor next to her friend.

"Don't bother with me; I'm a frog," Franz huffed as he hopped towards the bedroom door.

"Oh, please don't," Gretchen begged.

"I _hate_ being a frog," Franz snapped.

"But we can't help that, so you'll have to make the best of it," Gretchen reasoned. "I'm sorry for angering you; it was unintentionally done."

Franz stopped and turned his mournful, bulging eyes to her. "If something could be done about it, would you do it?" he asked.

"I don't know," Gretchen confessed. "Do you think you'd be better off if you weren't a frog?"

"I do," Franz declared.

"Then yes, I would do it."

"Are you going to continue seeing this knight of yours?"

"I would like to," Gretchen said meekly. "I like him very much."

Franz continued to gaze at her for some time with his mournful eyes, then finally sighed and hopped towards her outstretched hand. "You are being foolish," he said. "But I suppose you will have to find that out for yourself."

"So I have your blessing?"

"Never. You have my permission, which is not nearly as good."

Gretchen stood with Franz cupped in her hands. "Well, thank you for that."

"I do have one rule that I think you ought to follow," said the frog.

"What is that?" Gretchen asked curiously. What more could the frog want?

"Do not kiss the man."

Later that evening, Franz watched through the window as Gretchen walked sneakily onto the castle lawn, clad in a dark cloak and carrying a torch. Heinrich met her at the well for the horses, took the torch, and swept her into his arms

The frog glared out the window.

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	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

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**Chapter 5: **

It was three whole weeks later that Gretchen came crying into her bedroom as Franz lay, bored, on his gold-embroidered cushion. Hearing her sniffles, the frog immediately sat up and peered at her with bulging eyes of concern.

"Crying again?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"Sir Heinrich doesn't deserve his title," Gretchen sniffed, throwing herself onto her luxurious silk bed. "He's a cad. Rotten to the core."

Franz simply stared at her with his large, understanding eyes, unable to hop down from his windowsill without the risk of injuring himself. Perhaps this was for the best, since it allowed Gretchen to simply cry her sorrows away without interruption. When she was ready, she sat up and looked sadly at her frog friend.

"I saw him embracing another woman today," she said in a dead voice.

As he heard this, Franz's eyes bulged out even farther and his throat swelled. "I'll kill him," he croaked.

Gretchen shook her head. "Don't upset yourself," she said quietly. "I could ask my father to punish him, but I don't want revenge." Standing, she went to her beautiful carved dresser and pulled her mother's golden ball out of the top drawer. She then walked to Franz's windowsill and leaned against it, setting the ball down beside the frog.

"Thank you for returning this to me," she said.

"I don't like it when you cry," Franz explained.

They fell into a companionable silence as they watched the clouds out the window. After a time, Franz quietly asked, "Did you ever kiss him?"

Gretchen emitted a long, sad sigh. Disappointment filled Franz's eyes, and he croaked, "Oh."

"No, I didn't," Gretchen hastily said. "I took your advice."

As quickly as it had come, the disappointment fled. "I'm glad," Franz said.

"I'm glad, as well," said Gretchen.

"You are growing wiser every day," the frog said approvingly. "I am very proud of you."

"Thank you," Gretchen murmured. "I hope someday I may grow wise enough to forgive Heinrich."

"I daresay you will," Franz assured her. "You are not by nature a silly girl, and your improvement has been a natural occurrence. Please don't fret."

"I won't," said Gretchen. "Goodness, I am ever so glad I didn't kiss him!"

"Would you ever consider, perhaps, kissing me?" Franz hopefully suggested.

Turning to the frog, Gretchen smiled. "You do know how to cheer me up. Humor does the job nicely."

But the frog's eyes showed that he was in earnest, and dismay flooded Gretchen's face. "Oh, you mustn't say such things!" she exclaimed.

"It was only a thought," Franz said, turning his eyes back to the clouds.

However, the thought apparently refused to depart from the frog's mind, for over the next several weeks he continued to make the same suggestion at the most surprising times. Gretchen found it most distressing, for every time she replied her negative answer seemed to disappoint the frog terribly.

"You really must stop asking that," she said at one point. "It is making both of us unhappy."

"I am no less happy than I was before," Franz had replied. "Are you?"

"Much less so," Gretchen had confessed. "Please stop."

But Franz would not stop. He continued to pester her until she was compelled to resort to the sort of sharp answers that she used to give him, back in the early days of their acquaintance.

"Would you kiss a fly?" she once snapped. That silenced the frog for quite some time.

It was at this time that the king fell very ill. This terrified Gretchen. She could not bear the thought of losing both her mother and her mother in the same year. For a time, all thoughts of kissing vanished as Franz simply tried to comfort his friend.

Fortunately, the king's physician announced that this was not a complex illness, and that it could be healed by a special herb.

"Do you have the herb with you?" Gretchen eagerly, desperately asked.

"No," the physician admitted. "It is difficult to collect, for it only grows at the very bottom of deep ponds and wells."

"You must collect it," Gretchen commanded.

"We will try."

"You will do it. You must do it! My father the king is dying!"

At this, Franz, whom the princess had as usual been holding in her hands, quietly croaked, "Princess, I can fetch the herb. Just place me in whichever body of water the herb grows."

"Would you really?" Gretchen gasped, lifting the frog up to her face and gazing at him joyfully, disbelievingly.

"If I do," Franz said steadily, "will you kiss me?"

Gretchen's joy evaporated, and she glared at him. "I see you require a bribe."

"I hope you won't think of it in such a way," said the frog. "I, too, want the king to recover. So I will fetch the herb. But it would be a comfort to have your promise that you will kiss me when I return."

Gretchen sighed and unwillingly gave her word.

The physician immediately took Franz aside and began to describe the herb to him, telling him its color, the shape of its leaves, even its root structure. Franz simply nodded, committing everything to memory. He was indeed a heroic frog.

Later that afternoon, the physician led Gretchen and Franz to the little well at which they had met. "Here," he said, "is a likely place for the herb to grow."

"Likely indeed," murmured Gretchen as she set the frog down on the side of the well. "Do be safe, Franz."

"I will be," the frog replied seriously. He gave her a short nod, hopped to the very edge of the well, dove in with a splash, and vanished into the dark waters.

He was in the well for a very long time, so long that Gretchen began to be anxious. "Do you think he is safe?" she asked the physician, who replied that he did not know.

"I hope he is safe," she murmured, peering into the well. The shadows were growing long as the sun set, and still Franz did not appear. At last, just before nightfall, his ugly green head emerged. In his mouth was the herb.

Joyfully, with tears in her eyes, Gretchen swooped down to scoop her friend out of the water. "I was so worried," she sniffled. "You took a very long time."

"I couldn't find the herb," the frog replied after he had deposited his burden in the hands of the physician. "And I had grown unaccustomed to swimming in deep water. But all is well now, is it not?"

"Yes, it is," Gretchen agreed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Let's go heal my father the king."

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**Just one chapter left. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

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**Chapter 6: **

It was an anxious night, for no one was truly certain that the herb would heal the king. However, in the morning the physician was able to confidently report that the king was growing stronger, and that he would soon be fully healed.

The jubilation that took place in the castle when this was announced would be impossible to describe. Let us just say that Gretchen was not the only poor soul who fell into tears.

However, later that day the noble frog took it upon himself to interrupt the princess's joy.

"Will you kiss me now?" he asked her as she carried him away from the celebratory dinner banquet.

Gretchen stopped and sighed, looking with dismay at the ugly, green, pleading face of the frog with its large, bulging eyes. "I suppose I promised, didn't I?" she said quietly.

"I daresay you did," the frog agreed.

"Please remember that I do not want to do this," Gretchen told him. "I do it because you are a wonderful, kind frog and because you seem to want a kiss above all else. I do it only for you."

"A true act of love," Franz croaked.

So Gretchen unwillingly lifted the frog up to her face and pressed her lips to his slimy green mouth.

Suddenly, immediately, Franz seemed to erupt into a blinding burst of light. Gretchen stumbled back, dropping him, but he did not fall. Instead, he remained suspended in the air, surrounded by light. There was another massive flash, and human legs seemed to shoot out from his body. Gretchen screamed. It was truly not a pleasant sight. Another flash, and human arms emerged. The grotesque creature was jerking painfully. There was one final flash of light that left Gretchen completely blinded. There was a loud thump as what used to be Franz fell to the ground, then all was still.

Several minutes later, Gretchen felt recovered enough to stir from where she lay on the hard, stone floor. She rose, looked towards where Franz should have been, and bit back another scream. It was a man.

The strange man was also stirring. He seemed to be in pain, grunting whenever he shifted his position on the floor.

"Who are you?" Gretchen asked in a very small voice, staring at the man with wide eyes. From what she could see, he seemed to be quite handsome, with thick blonde hair and a manly frame. But he had just taken the place of her best friend the frog. It was terrifying and suspicious.

The man somehow pulled himself upright. He looked at Gretchen with friendly blue eyes. "Are you frightened?" he asked kindly.

"Extremely," Gretchen breathed.

"Please don't be," said the man as he stretched out a hand to her. She scuttled away from him. He stood with a sigh, moving a little stiffly, and she followed suite, not wanting to be too far below him. Unfortunately, he was quite a bit taller than she was.

"Who are you?" she demanded for the second time.

The man, however, did not reply. He was staring at his legs and at the floor with an expression of awed joy. "Standing upright," he murmured. "Incredible." Looking into Gretchen's eyes, he said simply, "Thank you."

Ignoring the man's apparent gratitude, Gretchen asked shrilly, "Where is my friend? Where is the frog? Where is Franz?"

"Don't panic," said the man. "Don't be silly. I am Franz."

Gretchen stared at him for a few seconds, but then shook her head and took several steps backward. "Franz is a frog," she protested.

"Franz _was _a frog," the man corrected her. "He was a frog, and you met him in a well when he fetched your mother's golden ball. He has been your companion for several months, sleeping on a gold-embroidered cushion in your room. He watched you meet with Sir Heinrich. Yesterday, he dove back into the well where you met him and retrieved a healing herb for your father the king. He wanted a kiss from you so that he could become a human again, but also because he has come to love you above all else." Here, the man paused and fixed his frighteningly earnest gaze on Gretchen's face.

"Truly?" she asked, eyes wide as they could be. As she listened to him, she could recognize something in his voice that reminded her of Franz the frog. But the idea did not reassure her. "I don't understand," she whimpered.

The man stretched a tentative hand towards her shoulder, but she flinched back. With hurt eyes, the man said, "It was a witch's enchantment. I used to be a prince."

"Surely not," Gretchen snorted, turning to skepticism in her confusion.

"You must believe me," begged the man.

Gretchen looked at the stone floor. "I suppose I must, seeing as you are suddenly here and Franz is gone."

"I am Franz," declared the man. "Do I need to talk more in order to make you believe?"

Gretchen nodded mutely, so the man led her to a bench in a nearby hall and sat, holding her hand. "I have never held your hand before," he mused. "It has always been you holding me."

Gretchen jumped and tried to pull her hand away, but the man would not allow it. "No," he said. "You will stay and listen and let me hold your hand." When Gretchen did not object, he continued, "I originally demanded that you take me into the castle solely out of selfishness, hoping that I could persuade you to kiss me and break the witch's spell. But after a while I found I was falling in love with you, while you were no closer to kissing me than you had ever been before." He dropped her hand, stood, and began to pace. "It was, quite frankly, distressing," he confessed. "And when you went off with that Heinrich miscreant. Utter torture. And I had to watch, and I couldn't do anything. All I could do was watch as the scoundrel embraced you, and you embraced the scoundrel. Had I not been a frog, I would have leapt out the window at that very moment and declared my feelings."

Franz stopped his pacing and looked at Gretchen. She seemed close to tears. "Forgive me," he murmured. "I am being insensitive."

"No, you may continue," she said faintly.

"Well, I had fallen in love with you!" Franz almost shouted, throwing his arms into the air. "And yet I was a frog, so I could do nothing except offer advice and comfort. But I knew that I had to become a human again, no matter what, both to return to my own kingdom and to pursue you. I'm sorry for distressing you with my incessant pestering." Once again, he looked at her with his earnest eyes. "Will you forgive me?"

"Yes," she said, still very quietly.

"What is troubling you?" asked Franz, frowning.

"I let you sleep in my bedroom," Gretchen murmured in dismay.

At this, Franz began to laugh. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and after a while Gretchen realized that he was simply laughing for the sake of laughing, because he had not been able to properly laugh for so many months. Soon, she began to laugh as well. So they both laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

When they had finished laughing, Franz took Gretchen's hand once again and asked, "Will you kiss me again?"

Gretchen stared at him for some time, then shook her head. "I cannot."

"You kissed me as a frog," Franz reminded her. "Will you not kiss me now that I am a man?"

Blushing furiously, Gretchen shook her head again.

"I think you ought to," Frank declared. Placing his hand under her chin, he tilted her head up, leaned his own head down and kissed her sweetly, gently, tenderly on the lips. Gretchen could not remain unmoved when faced with such tenderness. She was soon returning the kiss with all the pure affection which she had long felt but which had never before been offered the chance to blossom into love.

"I half-expected something to explode again," she said when Franz finally pulled away.

He laughed and kissed her again.

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Finally, I feel it necessary to inform you readers that soon after Franz was restored to his kingdom, he returned to Gretchen and asked her to marry him. They lived happily ever after for many long years.

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**Well, there's the end. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you'll review! **


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